Analysis of activity-dependent morphological plasticity of dendritic spines on hippocampal neurons

Dendritic spines are the main sites of synaptic input onto
excitatory neurons. As recent experiments showed that synaptic
activity and especially long-term potentiation (LTP) can modify
spine morphology and number, I studied the effect of long-term
depression (LTD) on these parameters. I used a local stimulation
approach in combination with intracellular recordings and
2-photon-laser-microscopy to spatially restrict the area of induced
synaptic activity. My experiments indicate that spine morphology
was stable over time with only very little changes occurring
following the induction of LTD. The number of large, prominent
spine changes was very low. Only small, stubby spines disappeared
significantly after local LTD induction.